Charles Hay, son of James Hay, Esq. of Cocklaw,
Writer to the Signet, was born in 1747. He is said to have been
descended from the Hays of Rannes, an ancient branch of the family of
Hay. After the usual preparatory course of education, he passed advocate
in 1768, having just attained the years of majority; but, unlike most
young practitioners, Hay had so thoroughly studied the principles of the
law, "that he has been frequently heard to declare he was as good a
lawyer at that time as he ever was at any after period." He soon became
distinguished by his strong natural abilities, as well as by his
extensive knowledge of the profession, which embraced alike the minutest
forms of the daily practice of the Court and the highest and most subtle
points of jurisprudence. As a pleader he was very effective. His
pleadings were never ornamental, but entirely free of "those little arts
by which a speaker often tries to turn the attention of his auditors on
himself;" at the same time they were acute, augmentative, and to the
purpose. Mr Hay was, during the whole course of his life, a staunch Whig
of the old school. In 1806, on the death of David Smythe, Lord Methven,
he was promoted by the Fox administration to the bench, when he assumed
the title of Lord Newton. This appointment was the only one which took
place in the Court of Session during what was termed the reign of "the
talents,"— a circumstance on which it is said he always professed to set
a high value.

Whilst at the Bar, the opinions of his lordship were
probably never surpassed for their acuteness, discrimination and
solidity; and as a judge, he now showed that all this was the result of
such a rapid and easy application of the principles of law, as appeared
more like the effect of intuition than of study and laborious exertion.

Perhaps in none of his predecessors or contemporaries
were so happily blended those masculine energies of mind, so requisite
to constitute the profound lawyer, with that good nature and unpresuming
simplicity so endearing in private life. "Those who saw him only on the
bench were naturally led to think that his whole time and thoughts had
for all his life been devoted to the laborious study of the law. Those,
on the other hand, who knew him in the circle of his friends, when form
and austerity were laid aside, could not easily conceive that he had not
passed his life in the intercourse of society." He possessed an
extraordinary fund of good-humour, amounting almost to playfulness, and
entirely devoid of vanity or affectation. There was, perhaps, a strong
dash of eccentricity in his character; but his peculiarities appeared in
the company of so many estimable qualities, that they only tended to
render him more interesting to his friends. His lordship was of a manly
and firm mind, having almost no fear of personal danger. He possessed
great bodily strength and activity till the latter years of his life,
when he became excessively corpulent.

Lord Newton's extraordinary judicial talents and
social eccentricities are the subjects of numerous anecdotes. On the
bench he frequently indulged in a degree of lethargy not altogether in
keeping with the dignity of the long-robe, and which, to individuals
unacquainted with his habits, might well seem to interfere with the
proper discharge of his duties. On one occasion, while a very zealous
but inexperienced counsel was pleading before him, his lordship had been
dozing, as usual, for some time—till at last the young man, supposing
him asleep, and confident of a favourable judgment in his case, stopped
short in his pleading, and addressing the other lords on the bench,
said—"My lords, it is unnecessary that I should go on, as Lord Newton is
fast asleep." "Ay, ay," cried Newton, whose faculties were not in the
least affected by the leaden god, " you will have proof of that by and
by," when, to the astonishment of the jroung advocate, after a most
luminous review of the case, he gave a very decided and elaborate
judgment against him.

Lord Newton participated deeply in the bacchanalian
propensities so prevalent among lawyers of every degree, during the last
and beginning of the present century. He has been described as one of
the "profoundest drinkers" of his day. A friend informs us that, when
dining alone, his lordship was very abstemious; but, when in the company
of his friends, he has frequently been known to put three "lang-craigs"
under his belt, with scarcely the appearance of being affected by it. On
one of these occasions, he dictated to his clerk a law-paper of sixty
pages, which has been considered one of the ablest his lordship had ever
been known to produce. The manuscript was sent to press without being
read, and the proof sheets were corrected at the bar of the Inner House
in the morning.

It has been stated that Lord Newton often spent the
night in all manner of convivial indulgences—drove home about seven
o'clock in the morning—slept two hours, and mounting the bench at the
usual time, showed himself perfectly well qualified to perform his duty.
Simond, the French traveller, relates that " he was quite surprised, on
stepping one morning into the Parliament House, to find in the dignified
capacity, and exhibiting all the dignified bearing of a judge, the very
gentleman with whom he had just spent a night of debauch, and parted
only an hour before, when both were excessively intoxicated. His
lordship was also exceedingly fond of card-playing; so much so, that it
was humorously remarked, "Cards were his profession, and the law only
his amusement."

During the sitting of the Session, Lord Newton, when
an advocate, constantly attended a club once a week, called "The
Grocliallan Fencibles," which met in Daniel Douglas's Tavern, Anchor
Close, and consisted of a considerable number of literary men and wits
of the very first water. The club assumed the name of
Crochallan from the burthen of a Gaelic song, which the landlord
xised sometimes to entertain the members with ; and they chose to name
their association Fencibles, because several military volunteer
corps in Edinburgh then bore that appellation. In this club all the
members held some pretended military rank or title. On the introduction
of new members, it was the custom to treat them at first with much
apparent rudeness, as a species of initiation, or trial of their tempers
and humours ; and when this was done with prudence, Lord Newton was much
delighted with the joke, and he was frequently engaged in drilling the
recruits in this way. His lordship held the appointments of Major and
Muster-Master General to the corps. The late Mr Smellie introduced the
poet Burns to this corps in January 1787, when Lord Newton and he were
appointed to drill the bard, and they accordingly gave him a most severe
castigation. Burns showed his good-huinonr by retaliating in an
extemporaneous effusion, descriptive of Mr Smellie, who held at that
time the honourable office of hangman to the corps.

The eccentricities of Lord Newton were frequently a
source of merriment amongst his friends. He had an unconquerable
antipathy to punning, and in order to excite the uneasiness he
invariably exhibited at all attempts of that nature, they studiously
practised this novel species of punishment in his company.

His lordship had two estates (Newton and Faichfield,)
and was fond of agricultural improvements; although, like most other
lawyers who cultivate their own lands, he did not know much about
farming. One day, when shown a field of remarkably large turnips, he
observed that, in comparison, those in his own grounds were only like "gouf
ba's,"—an expression which his waggish friend frequently afterwards
turned to his annoyance, by asking him how his "gouf ba's " were
looking.

We have already mentioned that Lord Newton was an
uncompromising Whig. From his independent avowal of principles, and
occasional vehement declamation against measures which he conceived to
be wrong, he was dubbed by his opponents the "Mighty Goth." This,
however, was only in the way of good-natured banter; no man, perhaps,
passed through life with fewer enemies, even among those who were his
political opponents. All bore testimony to his upright conduct as a
judge—to his talents as a lawyer—and to his honesty as a man.

Lord Newton died at Powrie, in Forfarshire, on the
19th of October 1811. His lordship, who is understood not to have
relished female society, was never married ; and the large fortune which
he left was inherited by his only sister, Mrs Hay Mudie, for whom he
always entertained the greatest affection.

Lord Newton, when an advocate, continued to wear the
gown of Lockhart, "Lord Covington," till it was in tatters, and at last
had a new one made with a fragment of the neck of the original sewed
into it, whereby he could still make it his boast that he wore
"Covington's gown." Lord Covington died in 1782, in the eighty-second
year of his age. He practised for upwards of half a century at the bar
previous to his elevation to the bench in 1775. He and his friend,
Ferguson of Pitfour, rendered themselves conspicuous by becoming
voluntary counsel for the unfortunate prisoners tried at Carlisle in
1746, for their concern in the Bebellion, and especially by the
ingenious means they devised to shake the wholesale accusations against
them.

This comment system requires
you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an
account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or
Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these
companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All
comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator
has approved your comment.